_RT_
Hall of Famer
- Sep 17, 2006
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- Furies Premiers 2010
Our tough start to the season continues this week as we front up against the Demons in the traditional ANZAC Eve game. The Demons who were poor in their last outing against the Lions will be looking at bouncing back, while we continue to battle an unprecedented injury crisis that currently sees us with 30 fit players to choose from and while we will possibly be getting Hopper & Grimes back this week, we've lost Short to yet another injury, so it's 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Meanwhile, Melbourne is at close to full strength with Salem the only best 23 player that is missing after he injured a hamstring last game and will be eager to get back on the winners list.
Hopefully we can return to playing in the manner that we were playing against Carlton Port & Sydney, where we were able to be right in the games for the majority of the game due to our pressure and ability to execute the game plan. The issue though is that over the last couple of games against the Saints & Eagles we've only really been able to manage to do that for about a quarter before the opposition have been able to wrestle control away from us and then dominate the remainder of the game. If we do that against the Demons on Wednesday night this game has the potential to become quite ugly on the scoreboard as the Demons are a much better level of opponent that the Saints & Eagles were.
In terms of selection the Tigers are hopeful to see the return of Hopper and Grimes to give us a boost of experience, but it's still going to be a relatively young line up that takes the field against the Dees even with those returns. The benefit that we're getting from the current injury crisis is that we're getting an extended look at the kids and are starting to see some promising signs from a few of them as players we're looking to be part of the future.
Line Up
Out: Short(inj) Pickett McIntosh
In: Grimes Hopper Ryan
B: Brown Miller Young
HB: Vlastuin D.Rioli Broad
C: Campbell Hopper Ralphsmith
HF: Mansell Bolton M.Rioli
F: Lefau Martin Koschitzke
R: Nankervis Baker Dow
INT: McAuliffe Graham Ryan Grimes
SUB: Sonsie
I'd like to see us embrace the opportunity to put development time into the kids and with Hopper and Grimes coming back into the line up, I'd send McIntosh & Pickett back the VFL to find some form, while giving young guys like Ralphsmith & Campbell an opportunity on the wings to see what they offer. Campbell has played some wing time already this season and his ability to cover plenty of ground shouldn't hurt us too badly, he also has better composure and ball use than both Pickett and McIntosh, while Ralphsmith is in a now or never moment of his career and needs to show something, so I'd be giving him that opportunity in a game where we're unlikely to get the win anyway, at least then you'll know what he is able to bring to the side moving forward. With the Dees having 3 talls down back I feel we need to bring in Ryan, who has been in good form the last 2 games at VFL level, to play forward & support Nankervis in the ruck. Also gives us another marking option up forward so that the Dees can't just intercept mark at will in their D50.
Prediction:
As mentioned this is going to be tough for us to get close to the Demons given the injury crisis we're in and anything under a 6 goal loss would be as good as a win IMO. What's more important than the margin, though is that we see the same level of effort & intensity that we saw during the 3 games against Carlton Port & Sydney. If we bring that we'll at least make the Demons earn the win. We can't get into the habit of just letting teams just run over the top of us, as it can be a difficult rut to climb out of.
Hopefully we can return to playing in the manner that we were playing against Carlton Port & Sydney, where we were able to be right in the games for the majority of the game due to our pressure and ability to execute the game plan. The issue though is that over the last couple of games against the Saints & Eagles we've only really been able to manage to do that for about a quarter before the opposition have been able to wrestle control away from us and then dominate the remainder of the game. If we do that against the Demons on Wednesday night this game has the potential to become quite ugly on the scoreboard as the Demons are a much better level of opponent that the Saints & Eagles were.
In terms of selection the Tigers are hopeful to see the return of Hopper and Grimes to give us a boost of experience, but it's still going to be a relatively young line up that takes the field against the Dees even with those returns. The benefit that we're getting from the current injury crisis is that we're getting an extended look at the kids and are starting to see some promising signs from a few of them as players we're looking to be part of the future.
Line Up
Out: Short(inj) Pickett McIntosh
In: Grimes Hopper Ryan
B: Brown Miller Young
HB: Vlastuin D.Rioli Broad
C: Campbell Hopper Ralphsmith
HF: Mansell Bolton M.Rioli
F: Lefau Martin Koschitzke
R: Nankervis Baker Dow
INT: McAuliffe Graham Ryan Grimes
SUB: Sonsie
I'd like to see us embrace the opportunity to put development time into the kids and with Hopper and Grimes coming back into the line up, I'd send McIntosh & Pickett back the VFL to find some form, while giving young guys like Ralphsmith & Campbell an opportunity on the wings to see what they offer. Campbell has played some wing time already this season and his ability to cover plenty of ground shouldn't hurt us too badly, he also has better composure and ball use than both Pickett and McIntosh, while Ralphsmith is in a now or never moment of his career and needs to show something, so I'd be giving him that opportunity in a game where we're unlikely to get the win anyway, at least then you'll know what he is able to bring to the side moving forward. With the Dees having 3 talls down back I feel we need to bring in Ryan, who has been in good form the last 2 games at VFL level, to play forward & support Nankervis in the ruck. Also gives us another marking option up forward so that the Dees can't just intercept mark at will in their D50.
Prediction:
As mentioned this is going to be tough for us to get close to the Demons given the injury crisis we're in and anything under a 6 goal loss would be as good as a win IMO. What's more important than the margin, though is that we see the same level of effort & intensity that we saw during the 3 games against Carlton Port & Sydney. If we bring that we'll at least make the Demons earn the win. We can't get into the habit of just letting teams just run over the top of us, as it can be a difficult rut to climb out of.
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